Feedback A Solution to the Grouping Issue

[Meladry]

Thought I'd resurface this topic in a new thread since it seems a nice fix to the grouping issue, which is currently chief in driving players away.

TL;DR: an inverse GEL system will encourage grouping, better aligning with the game's vision.

The Problem: Not enough incentive for grouping = not enough groups.
The majority of players have said that groups at or around one's same level are hard to find, especially as you level past 25-30. I'm experiencing it myself at level 35. This stems from a few reasons, including a lack of incentive to group with lower level players. People play at different paces, which means a wide chasm between player levels - even in a guild - and results in silos where high level players group together and low level players group together, separately. One by one, folks drop off because there are not enough people to group with anymore.

Ultimately, as a cooperative MMO, part of this game's vision is to encourage grouping, so there needs to be more reward for grouping, or folks won't see enough value in it when their level is way higher or way lower than everyone else's. The player pool in EA is too small to afford to allow them to be segregated from each other by level. There needs to be a way to draw them together, and I think this idea (or some variant of it) will serve that purpose.

The Fix: Inverse GEL system.
Sintax had a great idea that utilizes the current GEL system, so I'll quote him here:

Another possible way to tackle the issue more wholistically might be to leverage the GEL system to create a sort of inverse effect. Rather than elevating everyone to the highest level player, adjust player levels down to the lowest by clicking on the arrow to invert GEL. Or perhaps the system can simply adjust to the level of the group leader so it can thus be calibrated to the needs of the players themselves.

In so doing, higher level players could be adjusted to a lower effective level and thus once again earn XP and EE from mobs that were once gray to them. This would tackle two problems rather neatly: the difficulty in farming EE to make use of the alchemy system and the grouping problem (or lack thereof).

Even an old game like Guild Wars 2 does something like this, where your level, damage, and health decrease as you return to low level areas, essentially reverting you to an appropriate previous level. In EA's case, this would activate only during grouping in areas not included in the free trial, preventing over-farming for new players. By providing a way for higher level players to earn XP and EE (however small you choose it to be), they will be more incentivized to group with lower levels to kill mobs that would normally be grey for them, eliminating the silos and rewarding them for grouping up. This also gives people a reason to return to various areas so carefully crafted by your world design team.

If it's too large of a leap/too costly an addition, perhaps a test of this mechanic for a few weeks would be a good first step.

I encourage the team to give this some thought and at least let it spur a solution of some sort, even if it's not this one. Right now, EA needs a deep solution, not a surface one.

 

[Undone]

Thought I'd resurface this topic in a new thread since it seems a nice fix to the grouping issue, which is currently chief in driving players away.

TL;DR: an inverse GEL system will encourage grouping, better aligning with the game's vision.

The Problem: Not enough incentive for grouping = not enough groups.
The majority of players have said that groups at or around one's same level are hard to find, especially as you level past 25-30. I'm experiencing it myself at level 35. This stems from a few reasons, including a lack of incentive to group with lower level players. People play at different paces, which means a wide chasm between player levels - even in a guild - and results in silos where high level players group together and low level players group together, separately. One by one, folks drop off because there are not enough people to group with anymore.

Ultimately, as a cooperative MMO, part of this game's vision is to encourage grouping, so there needs to be more reward for grouping, or folks won't see enough value in it when their level is way higher or way lower than everyone else's. The player pool in EA is too small to afford to allow them to be segregated from each other by level. There needs to be a way to draw them together, and I think this idea (or some variant of it) will serve that purpose.

The team is well aware of the current situation and we are working on potential solutions. As you can imagine this is no simple task.

The Fix: Inverse GEL system.
Sintax had a great idea that utilizes the current GEL system, so I'll quote him here:

Even an old game like Guild Wars 2 does something like this, where your level, damage, and health decrease as you return to low level areas, essentially reverting you to an appropriate previous level. In EA's case, this would activate only during grouping in areas not included in the free trial, preventing over-farming for new players. By providing a way for higher level players to earn XP and EE (however small you choose it to be), they will be more incentivized to group with lower levels to kill mobs that would normally be grey for them, eliminating the silos and rewarding them for grouping up. This also gives people a reason to return to various areas so carefully crafted by your world design team.

If it's too large of a leap/too costly an addition, perhaps a test of this mechanic for a few weeks would be a good first step.

Unfortunately, the game was not designed in a way that allows us to downscale players. Doing so would require a significant time investment in the form of rewriting many of our internal systems. Even if we did have the time it would move us towards being a level-less game; which I don't think would be such a bad thing with our lower population. However, a level-less Embers Adrift is basically a new game from both a design and technical perspective. GEL currently works because it removes barriers that reduce your effectiveness against higher level mobs. There is no equivalent for lower level mobs.

 

[Meladry]

This makes sense, thank you for the explanation! I've been reading up on the planned/current changes as well, so I know you're doing what you can with what you have - thought I'd add an idea to the pile.